Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

The Rosette Nebula is a vast star-forming region, 100 light-years across, that lies at one end of a giant molecular cloud in the constellation Monoceros. The nebula is estimated to contain around 10,000 solar masses. The nebula is located about 5,000 light-years away from Earth. Intense radiation from the young stars inside a cluster in the nebula causes the gasses to glow. The background image is from the Digitized Sky Survey, while the inset is a small portion of the nebula as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Dark clouds of hydrogen gas laced with dust are silhouetted across the image. The colors come from the presence of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasa-celebrates-hubbles-35th-year-in-orbit/

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

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